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Thursday, October 13, 2011

It's chilly: {chili time}

Well I think the weather may have finally turned here in Chicagoland. *Sigh* It's chilly, rainy, and generally overall icky.

I was really loving the 80 degree weather and sunshine but alas all good things must come to an end. It made for many outdoor adventures and happy smiles. I suppose I should just suck it up and enjoy the 60 degree days we might still get in October because that's a whole lot better than what is coming our way in the next couple of months. But I don't want to think about that at all.

Fall weather isn't all that bad though. In fact, there's quite a few things I'm looking forward to for fall weather, namely scarves, sweaters, boots, all things pumpkin, turning the oven on without sweating bullets, and warm foods. That's right, it's perfect weather for a nice bowl of chili. Vegetarian sweet potato and black bean chili to be exact.

Plenty of veggies make this chili nice and chunky.

And the beans help make it hearty.

And the spices make it full of flavor.

Of course, I can never follow a recipe exactly so I added some red pepper flakes and cayenne pepper so my chili could pack a punch.

Another substitution I had to make was chicken stock for veggie stock. I made this during my month of non-meat eating but I read the label on my chicken stock container and I really don't think it actually uses any meat anyways, just artificial and non-artificial flavorings.

I love that chili is so easy. I'll I had to do was prep the veggies, throw all the ingredients into my crock pot and then the next morning before work I turned the crock pot on low. When I came home about 10 hours later my chili was all ready for me. Just tossed on some cheddar cheese and onions and gobbled away.

This chili was so thick and chunky, which is the only way chili ever should be. And mine was nice and spicy! Yummmmm.

I enjoyed some great cornbread on the side and crumbled on top as well. Perfect meal for a chilly fall night.

I love coming home and already having my meal prepared. Otherwise, I come home and I'm starving and if I don't have anything planned to make I just eat whatever I can find the fastest. Cereal, chips, almond butter, you name it. I want to eat the first thing I see. I'll definitely be using my crock pot much more this coming season.

Another great thing is this chili made a ton of leftovers. I took it for work several days and ate it at home. If you are a singleton like me I would recommend freezing half of this batch. It was getting a little old by the end.